Disadvantages of Business Application software

There are certain disadvantages of business software applications. The development or purchase of software is quite costly to for businesses. It affects their budget, revenue and operations. Some software designed for a particular module or business might not support if the software is subject to expansion or additional functional requirement of business. Business software application can affect business with damaging effect of computer virus programs. Improper maintenance of infrastructure will lead to the data loss.

Now we will discuss the disadvantages of business software:

• Delay in development: While developing the software, there is a constant communication needed between the client and the developer. It may affect the operations of such department. It leads to the delay in the business process which can be harmful.

• Cost: The software is quite costly for small and medium companies. It will effect on the budget and revenue flow of the company. Even to train the employees the company has to spend the money as well time.

• Compatible issues: The compatible issues are two types. Relating to the employees and the software. Some employees may not be compatible to work on the software or it is difficult for them to understand and use the software.

As regards software part, it may not fit for the organizational requirements and it might not support the current infrastructure. Some software applications are not compatible with other software applications.

• Virus attacks: Computer virus attacks damage the entire information or partially. Sometimes, it is not possible to recover the data. Then it will be a great damage to the business.

• Theft of data: Digital data theft are difficult to trace. In most situations, it is not possible even to identify the theft. The digital data can send out through so many mediums. Once it leaked out absolutely uncontrollable.

• Hackers: Hackers are also a major problem. They try to get access to the data. Generally hackers targeted to the confidential information.

• Power: Electricity is must to operate computer software. In the developing countries the power is very problematic. Power supply does not occur without interruptions. If the power is lost while working, whatever the data entered and not saved will gone. Sometimes it will lead to software crash. To avoid this power backup is essential, for which businesses incur cost.

Note that all these disadvantage, might not affect a single organization. Some of them can be factors of concern for businesses. It is also important that most of these disadvantages are caused because of mistakes in manual operations. You can avoid such mistakes proper planning and applying the software accurately.

How Enterprise Computing Help Various Industries?

Enterprise computing is getting popular more than. A few industries, however, are still not using computing technology in their company and rely on manual work. Why computing has took a prominent place in various industries? What are the major industries using computing?

In this article, we will discuss the major industries using computing technology for their business operations.

Retail industry – Manual accounts were being maintained before computing technology came. But now most retail owners are able to expand their business with in short time.

• By using computers and technology it has made possible for retail owners to serve and retain their customers more efficiently. In the past, cash was the only way to accept money from customers, but now businesses can either take money in the form of cash or using credit/debit cards.

• Retail owners used to spend a lot of time to calculate the amount they get each day. Today, they can do it within a few seconds. They need to enter the details directly into the system and store them in files. With use of computing techniques, it has made it easy for individual retail owners to the the job simple and easy.

• Computing helps businesses stamp specific symbols on products, owners are able to maintain a track record of their goods and services, salaries given to workers, loss and profits in business, etc.

• Offline service is the only choice for their business earlier, but now because of computer technologies, they can operate business even online.

Manufacturing industry - Manufacturing industry involves in vestment in big amount. Any error committed by one person affects overall progress of manufacturing business. It is the computing that help these owners avoid those minor errors that could otherwise affect them severely.

• Manufacturing involves design, plan and the method to proceed to manufacture a single product. It becomes difficult to maintain information of all manufactured goods precisely.

• By using computing data related to whole manufacturing process - records of manufactured goods, products still under manufacturing process, imports and exports, expenditure and profits, salary records, services and customer list can be stored accurately.

Service sectors – Computing finds application service sector widely. Service sector is the main factor that decides the fate of business. Whatever business you do, if you fail to reach you customer in offering better services than others, it is of no use in doing business further.

Using computing, service sector is able to create records based on priorities - what is to be done now and later. They are able to respond quickly to complaints from customers, and resolve them fast. Maintain information about services to old customers, new customers, list of services they provide etc.

• Computing allows easy interaction with customers and makes them available with updates about the services in offer.

Government sectors – It is positive sign that government sectors are showing equal interest as private sectors. Handling government efficiently is a very big task, because inefficiency reflects on public. It is responsible to increase economy and offer public services.

• It is some what difficult to maintain records in various departments like accounts, insurance, banking, tourism etc. Though many people are involved, it is time taking and cannot expect 100% efficiency from manual work.

• Computers have taken role of human beings and are responsible for progress in working strategy of government.

Educational institutions – It has become some what tough to maintain history of data of students of . Computing help in maintaining records of staff, administration and finance department data, details of student fees, scholarship etc. 

Transport industry – It is cumbersome to enter details of each person and goods each time and security of this data is also a important. Computing allows transport owners to maintain bills, ledgers, details of customers, vehicle transport places, date and time of transported goods, etc. It makes their job simple, easy and fast to execute.

Computing is important for businesses across industries. It is sensible for businesses to adopt computing and improve their performance.

Hierarchy of Enterprise Computing Users

Enterprise computing is an information system of an enterprise or an organization. Information system of an organization includes hardware, software, people, data and procedures, all coordinates and communicate to execute business operations effectively. People belonging to an enterprise using hardware devices, software or data of an enterprise are called enterprise computing users.

A user of enterprise computing in an organization will fall under one of the four categories of enterprise computing users. The four categories of users in an organization are executives management, middle management, operational management and non-management employees. In this article, we will discuss each briefly.

Executive management

• Executive management is a team of people who are at the highest level and are considered as the top people or person of the organization.
• Executive management coordinate with other branches/departments and leaders of the teams. Executive management people are responsible for managing and running the organization.
• According to executive management users in consultation with IT experts (in-house or outside), the enterprise computing architecture is designed.
• Executive management have the authority to access any hardware, software or data of the enterprise and even to alter the computing architecture of the organization. It is the decision of the executive management to provide which device, software or resources to which user.

Middle management

• It is the second level of users, and is the intermediate level of management in the organization's hierarchy. It is below the executive management and above the operational management.
• Operational supervisors or team leaders can be called a middle management.
• It is upto to the executive management to decide how much access to data or resources a middle management can have.
• Middle management assigns the operations and enables the operational management ti access enterprise information that is required to perform the operations.
• He supervises and verifies the outcome of the task completed by the operational management.

Operational management

• Operational management is responsible for performing operations by making use of enterprise information (access given by the middle management).
• Research, designing and production of goods (products or services) are done by the operational management.
• It is the responsibility of the operational management to produce efficient goods and redesign the products if necessary by utilizing less resources in order to save costs of the organization and at the same time meeting customer's expectations and provide best quality goods.

Non management employees

• Non management employees are part of an organization but generally do not have access to the enterprise computing.
• They are assigned with low-end work or work that supports users in any or all the three levels.
• They may or may not have access to the enterprise information. Even if they have it is very limited when compared to other three categories of users.

Hierarchy in enterprise computing users plays an important role in successful execution of task that businesses face. It makes employees stay within the bounds of their hierarchy without affecting their productivity.

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Subsystems of Enterprise Software

Enterprise software, enterprise hardware and enterprise networking are the three major components that constitute enterprise computing. Enterprise software is the key component of all three.

Enterprise software has different subsystems that are developed to fulfill various needs of an organization. In this article, we will discuss four important subsystems of an enterprise software that is - enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and business intelligence (BI) software.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is one of the most important systems of enterprise software.
• It co-ordinates all other systems of the enterprise software and looks after every operational system of the organization including product development, manufacturing, sales and marketing, accounting, etc.
• Not only does it coordinate internal functions of an organization, but also maintains connection and communicates to the outside partners or clients.
• ERP consists of multiple individual enterprise software, that are separate and perform specific tasks. Based on the needs of your organizations, you can omit the unwanted software, saving cost to your organization.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• CRM is the subsystem of an enterprise software that describe relationship between customers and the business.
• The main functions of CRM includes understanding customers, retaining old customers, providing better customer service, attracting new customers, and winning new leads or clients, manage customer management cost and increase profits to the business.
• It gives the business a better understanding of customers' needs, and helps business build up good rapport with the customers, thus acquiring big loyal customer base.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

• Supply chain management (SCM) is an interlinked network or system of enterprise software, that design, plan, execute, control and monitor all the activities relating to the supply of products or services to the customers.
• SCM looks after every activity of the organization- from ordering of raw material and storing them to supplying the finished goods to customers.
• SCM takes care of the inventory and suggests the volume of products to be supplied based on the demand, thus reducing the unsold products of a business and thus helps reduce wastage.

Business Intelligence (BI)

• Business intelligence is a method of transforming raw data into meaningful information using certain techniques, methodologies, theories, processes, etc.
• It helps businesses in different ways by performing several activities like data mining, querying, reporting, analytical processing etc.
• BI helps decision makers in taking critical decisions, save costs and identify any new business opportunities.

Usage of enterprise software is growing rapidly, and developing enterprise software makes a big business today. There are many big players, who are experts in developing enterprise software with different business functions to suit a wide range of businesses and their needs.

Key Things that Make Enterprise Software (ES) Ideal

It is helpful to both Organization and customers if the enterprise software is good and informative. There are many factors which makes the ES ideal. Some of the most important aspects that make the software of an organization ideal are

1. Good Functionality
2. Appealing to the users

• Easy to use
• Visually attractive

3. Creative
4. Informative

1. Good Functionality

• Enterprise software are meant for the businesses. Hence it has to cover all the areas of the business and get the job done for the organization.
• It is not an ideal thing for the business if it misses out any of the functionality of the business.
• All the operations of the business must be performed accurately and quickly.
• It should be well understood by the users and the employees need to be trained to utilize it effectively helping for the growth of the organization.

2. Appealing to Users

Users tend to use the enterprise software if it is appealing and attractive to them. The two most important things that makes the ES appealing to the users are:

• Easy to use:For people or employees of the business should be able to use the software properly for the operations of the business. Users should find it easy to browse the products, information about the products and finishing the transactions. This is possible only if it is well clear and easy to use.
• Visually attractive:This shows the quality conscious of the organization and creates best impression to the new customers. Enterprise software should be attractive visually to tempt the customers to visit it many times.

3. Creative

• It is not a good sign for the organizations if the developers of the enterprise software stick to the traditional ways of building the software.
• Developers should be creative and put innovative ideas into the enterprise software to make it stand out among all other organizations.
• Organizations should also encourage the developers in building the creative software for their business.
• Good understanding, frequent conversations and constructive debates between the developers and the organizations helps build creative enterprise software.

4. Informative

• Enterprise software is a like a mediator between business and customers/clients. It represents the organization. Thus, it is important that the software should convey all the needed information about the organization to users.
• There is nothing wrong in integrating an extra help to the users in the form of documents and presentations for the reference. This increases the productivity of the organization.
• For businesses who are into the sales, extra care should be taken about this factor. When customers log in, they should get the complete information about the organization, its products and the services.
• In case of collaboration of other organizations, the first thing they do to approve the offer is they log in to the application and verify the details. It gives a positive impression if the other party if they get all the information they are looking for. Hence, it is necessary for the enterprise software to be informative for the expansion and development of the business.

Care should be taken by businesses while developing enterprise software.  It should have all the features to make it an ideal enterprise software.

How To Secure Enterprise Software (ES)

Securing enterprise software of a business is critical and it is the responsibility of the organization concerned. Following are some steps to understand how enterprise software can be secured.

• Individual business has to protect the enterprise software (ES) of their business and to make sure that it works effectively. This can be done by themselves or by contacting the developers.

• It is likely that any software program or application will be affected by threats, viruses, spams, Trojans etc. Therefore, a good anti-virus software should be installed with the Enterprise software (ES). ES can be protected by doing this. There are many anti-virus software’s available in the market. Choosing a good one is preferable.

• Installing anti-virus software with ES would not work forever. It has to be updated whenever needed to make it work efficiently and protect ES. Thus, regular contact with the anti-virus software company will help the organization know whenever there is an update. Ignoring the security will result in bad functionality of the ES and business.

• ES stores confidential information of the business and the resources. Any unauthorized user may hack and misuse the information. To protect the ES from unauthorized users, it is advisable to install a firewall. The firewall protects the business from unauthorized users.

• Restricting unwanted information flowing across the Internet is also important to protect the ES. There are many methods of getting access to the private and confidential data. Getting unwanted information is also one of the methods to hack the software.

• It is the best practice to send the business logic or business related information in encrypted fashion while communicating with one another within the business.

• It is not good always to relay on the ES while storing data of the business. It is good to back up the data and the location is mentioned to the central server. This helps whenever software crashes or computer breakdown. It will be easy for the server to retrieve the data from the location given to it before.

• Access to the key elements of the software should be restricted. Sometimes giving access to the important elements of the software would turn out to be dangerous if any of the employees is not loyal. Therefore, only trusted people should be granted with the permission to key functions of the ES.

• If a company is large enough to afford an administrator, it is advisable to employ a person to look after the security of the business software. This is because business software or enterprise software is important for the business.

• In some cases, ignoring the update of hardware devices may also result in ES malfunctioning. The hardware configuration of the system should be monitored and modified whenever required.

• Any financial transactions related to the business should not be processed through ES. It is good for the organization to employ a third party for financial transactions.

Secured enterprise business always helps businesses earn more profits.

Enterprise Software - The Future Aspects

Enterprise software though has undergone many changes from time to time, many of the organizations are working for sophistication of enterprise software. Remodeling is essential to meet the requirements arousing in the market, introduction of new technologies and also survival in the competition.

This article represents the future aspects for improving and making economic contribution to customers and the software.

Post banking crisis economic recession – It is the insufficiency that took place in the banking sector due to improper organization of the banks. Enterprise software is now working on how to prevent economic recession. It can be achieved by reducing revenue earning by excluding costly upgrade projects and increasing the attractions of affordable third-party maintenance services.

Cloud computing - Cloud computing refers to built a platform and infrastructure services to maintain their existence in the competition. Enterprise software has to work on productivity, cost efficiency and quality of the software.

Consumerization - It refers to growing tendency of  consumers to get used to new products and services, and increasingly use it. It mainly focus on how to provide best services at low cost and make a good profit. To achieve this, updating with new technologies is very important.

Big data analysis – Analysis refers to both external and internal aspects of the business. It reveals inadequacy of technical and business analytical aspects that help in taking decision about how to increase the frequency of technical data, avoid or work on unstructured information.

It is working for better integration with communication technology (social software), analytical technology (use of analytical aids), use of different kinds of data which are machine generated.

Price/cash flow – Installation of software is very expensive in the sense of licensing, maintenance and customer services. Because of all these aspects initially it costs higher.

Difficult to customize – Modifying the software according to the company's requirement is a bit difficult. So it involves more time on programming. They are working on how to reduce the time and create a new technology.

User hostility – Enterprise software is rarely known for its friendliness of its user interface. Many organizations struggle with the design of software that can have impact on the work-flow.

Despite many advantages, enterprise software is facing inadequacy. To prevent this inadequacy trials are under progress for development of enterprise software in a new perspective.

Good Practices in Enterprise Software and Manufacturing ERP Software

The following rules explain how an enterprise software should be developed.

• The Enterprise Software package should be relatively easy to use.
• While implementing an enterprise software program it is very crucial to ensure that there is a smooth change from old systems to new systems.
• The new enterprise software should support multiple functions.
• Within the enterprise software program, a level of security must be maintained. When there are viruses in computer, it is very important for the organization to protect the software.
• The requirements that are reported within the enterprise software allows senior management personnel to have a look on the progress of the tool and how it interacts with different parts of the company.

Manufacturing ERP Software:

• Exact JobBOSS: This system is relatively easy-to-use, affordable and can be adapted easily.
• NetSuite manufacturing edition: It uses Software as a service model and contains a variety of enterprise resource planning tools and industry specific tools that enable it to manage manufacturing companies.
• Epicor manufacturing express edition: It is a comprehensive product for small and mid sized manufacturers. It contains a large spectrum of functionality that includes Customer relationship management, material management and others.